Planners reject Alberto Way project as too large

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Photograph by George Sakkestad
The developer of the proposed new office park at Alberto Way and Highway 9 installed blue story pole netting recently, so people can compare a downsized proposal with the original proposal that’s outlined in orange netting. Despite the downsizing measures, the planning commission rejected the proposal, saying it’s still too big.

Members of the Los Gatos Planning Commission unanimously rejected a proposal to tear down three buildings at 401-409 Alberto Way and replace them with a two-story office building and an underground parking garage.

The current business park at the corner of Highway 9 and Alberto Way encompasses about 31,000 square feet.

But last year, planning commissioners asked Lamb to reduce the size by one-third. When he returned to the planning commission May 10, he outlined how the proposed development had been downsized.

“In my opinion, we did 80 percent of what was asked. We were asked to take a third of the square footage off the building as an arbitrary number,” Lamb said. “We were already building within what the envelope allows: 35 square feet in height, two-story project, 50 percent coverage. We’re now 9,000 feet less than that.”

Lamb said 83,000 square feet is as small as he can go and still make a profit, and asked, “What didn’t we do?”

“I understand you want to get a big building on here to make your money, but we’ve got a development across the street, the Los Gatos Lodge, that’s not going to stay that way,” Alberto Way resident Brad Martin said. “Eventually, that will turn—it’s way underutilized. And the guy at the end of our street—his property is underutilized—and the hotel got a lot of square footage on their property somehow. You develop all those properties along with this one and that’s going to be a nightmare intersection.”

The planning commission discussed many aspects of the project, including traffic and hydrology, but in the end planners agreed it was simply too big.

“The size that is currently being proposed is too large,” Commissioner Kendra Burch said.

Shoplifting cases and commercial burglaries drove a spike in property crime during the first eight months of 2017. Meanwhile, other types of crime — stolen vehicles, aggravated assaults, robberies — were down from the same period last year